The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

5-0 :)

Once upon a time, some person, probably an ex-Padres fan, donated a poor Padres jersey to a thrift store in San Diego. One day, a young lady, who was a huge Padres fan, went to the thrift store and found said jersey. She looked at the price tag: $6. “Oh, I am so getting this,” she thought to herself.

She wore it to the Padres’ fan day, and also to her first game of the year, two days later. The Padres won the game.

The young lady was not superstitious at all, but just the same, she decided to wear it to her second game of the year. The Padres won again.

We all know that a jersey can’t really control the outcome of a game, but the young lady wore it to her third game of the year anyways. Hey, if it worked for the first two, why change it? The result was the same: A Padres win!

Now the young lady was getting second thoughts about the superstitions stuff. Of course, she wore it to her fourth game of the year. And what do you know, the Padres won!

The young lady now had no doubt at all of the power of the jersey. Before her fifth game of the year, she had a nightmare that she would forget the jersey. On the day of the game, she laid out the jersey on her bed and did not forget it. It’s no surprise that the Padres won that game too.

I present to you all, the incredible six-dollar jersey!

This jersey is so sweet. What a great buy, and man, it really helped me have a good time this year at Padres games. Not that a jersey wins our games or anything… :)

This game was my birthday present from my parents, and my whole family came along. We got to PETCO just after the Dodgers started batting practice. I went over to the Dodgers side and met Emma, who gave me the Padres’ Opening Day cap and a Padres banner. Thanks so much Emma!

We hung out on the Padres side for the rest of batting practice, but no Padres players came out so I didn’t get any autographs, but that’s all right. We went up to our amazing section in the upper deck. I got my 5 for $5 deal, and when I got back to our seats, I found three teenage Dodger fans in the row in front of us. My sister and I became “frienemies” with them. We gave each other a lot of flak for our teams. They were busting on my Padres hard, and it was hilarious. I mean, the Dodgers are statistacally a better team than us, but I think we’re really on the same level. Who won the series at Dodger Stadium two weeks ago? That’s right, the Padres did. Who won the game last night? That’s right, the Padres did.

We had a pretty rowdy section. Lots of Dodgers fans were in the stadium last night. The loudness of their cheering scared me. It almost sounded like they were the home crowd. That only motivated me to cheer harder, of course, as I’m sure it did for a lot of the Padres fans in the crowd.

In the first few innings, the Dodgers fans in our section kept bursting out in “Let’s go Dodgers, let’s go!” Of course, the Padres fans got right into it, screaming “PADRES!” over the Dodgers part. But I mean, they kept doing it! Once it faded out for a while, they would suddenly burst out again! I was like, oh man, are we going to have to do this for the rest of the game? ‘Cause my voice would have been gone by the fifth inning. Thankfully, things calmed down a little in the middle innings.

I knew that Kouz was supposed to make his first start in quite a while last night, but I was so excited when he was really announced. He batted sixth, so I kept waiting for him to be announced. Chase Headley was batting fourth, and when they announced that he was playing left, I was like ohmygoodnessYES!!! Chase has played third in every game that Kouz was out, so I knew that it had to be Kouz at third. I stood up and screamed when Kouz was announced. It was sooo exciting! I even teared up a little. It was sooooo good to have him back!!

Cesar Ramos made his first major league start for the Padres. He allowed a single and a walk to start off the first inning. Then here’s what happened: Andre Either grounds into double play, second baseman David Eckstein to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to shortstop Everth Cabrera to third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff. Rafael Furcal out at 3rd. It was a sweeeeet play, and great to get those two quick outs.

Ramos pitched very well. It seems like he walked a ton of guys, but he only walked three. He only allowed one run on four hits in five innings. He was goooood, for his first start. You could tell that he was nervous in the first. He threw a lot of balls. He had a couple really good innings, but for most of his outing, I didn’t really feel like he was totally on top of things. He started off a lot of batters with balls.

I’d say his best inning was the third. He got two outs before allowing a single and walk. Then Andre Ethier came up and battled against Cesar for 13 pitches. It was a super stressing at-bat. Ethier saw a lot of pitches, and with every foul (he hit seven of them) I was so worried that he was going to totally pound one. But he finally, finally grounded out to Eck to finish the inning. Whew.

In the bottom of the third, Tony Gwynn hit his second major league homer just inside of the right field foul pole. It was so cool to get first blood, and to get our first hit of the game!

On the Dodgers side, Chad Billingsley was excellent. He went six innings, only allowing two runs on two hits. He walked five and struck out five. He really held us down, and it was pretty frustrating.

In the top of the sixth, Orlando Hudson started off the inning with a triple. Andre Either got on when Everth completely botched a ground ball. It was terrible, and he looked so disappointed in himself. The tying run scored.

I’d say that the key of the game was the bottom of the sixth. After one out, Eck and Adrian walked. Chase flew out, but then Will Venable walked to load the bases. My dear Kouz came up and singled to center, driving in the go-ahead run. For some reason, Glenn Hoffman sent the oh-so-slow Adrian in, and he was out. Oh well. The go-ahead run scored, but I really think they should have held Adrian to keep the inning alive. There’s some great arms in the Dodgers outfield, and it’s obviously not a good idea to test them.

The bottom of the seventh was a really great inning too. Nick Hundley walked, and Everth sacrificed him over. Oscar Salazar grounded out, sending Nick to third. Tony Gwynn came up to bat, and the pitcher threw a wild pitch. Nick came home easily. Great execution by my boys. Tony Gwynn stole a base, but Eck grounded out. Oh well.

In one of the later innings, a foul ball went down the left field line. A bunch of fans leaned out to try to grab it, and one of them fell out onto the field. It was pretty funny!

So we went to the ninth inning, and it was major stress time for me. Heath “Always has to make it interesting” Bell was coming in. Thankfully, he was really on. He didn’t even allow a baserunner. He got the heart of the order, too. He struck out Manny looking, Matt Kemp swinging, and Loney swinging. We got the win!

I thought it was so cool that we held down Manny for the whole game. He went 0-for-4 and looked really terrible at the plate. I got the sense that he really didn’t care. I don’t think he got one ball out in left, so he was probably really bored. The Padres have been able to keep Manny down really well this year. I still don’t get why he’s even allowed to play baseball though, or why the Dodgers fans like him so much. Pretty crazy stuff.

At one point in the game, the scoreboard showed a sign that said something like, “Sorry, Dodgers, no champange tonight!” The staduim erupted in cheers. It was sooo sweet. We don’t want to see any team, especially the Dodgers, clinch on our turf. It’s okay, since they’ve got a playoff spot. They can clinch at home this weekend. Not here. Not on our watch.

It was so satisfying to get the win because of all the Dodgers fans there. We had a crowd of 25,318. That’s amazing for a Tuesday night, but I’m sure it was mostly that big because of the Dodgers fans. If it was any other team, we probably would have had 10,000 less people.

The teenagers in front of us were totally demeaning the Padres all night, calling them names like crazy, even to their bitter end. I was like, hello? Look who’s dominating here. Haven’t you been watching this team for the past two months? They’ve been AMAZING!! Well, I guess they’ll get it next year where we play extremely well. I’m so excited for next year. It’s going to be great. The Padres will finally get the recognition and respect they totally deserve. We’ve got something amazing going on here, and I want everyone to see it. It’s frustrating when these people are telling me how terrible my Padres are when they’re doing amazing right in front of their eyes. It almost seems like they’re uneducated. It seems like they haven’t been watching, and so they say what they think they know it right. But it’s not. It would be like me saying that the Yankees are a terrible team just because I haven’t checked on how the Yankees have been doing lately. Do your research, peoples. The Padres have been playing incredibly.

But it was so much fun. I took a lot of flak from the Dodgers fans, but didn’t give much back. I let my boys’ performance on the field do all the talking. And they didn’t let me down. What a great 3-1 win. I really really hope that we get tonight’s game too!

Clayton Richard is pitching tonight. It would be so sweet to get the mini-sweep here. Especially from the Dodgers. Especially in this playoff race here. Man, the Padres only have four games left!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! So sad. Oh well. At least I’ll have my Red Sox for the next month. GO RED SOX!!

Me and my jersey are 5-0 this year. Isn’t that sweet? Five games and five wins. It’s been a great year. I love my boys so much!!

Kaybee,
Sorry about the inconsiderate Dodger fans. I find that some of them are downright embarrassing.
Thanks for the synopsis of the game. I was at work so I really didn’t know what exactly happened except that the Dodgers were outplayed.
Your Padres have always been a tough team to beat. I expected them to come out on top at the beginning of the season. Next year.
Autographs are very hit and miss. Your Padres were so sweet about signing. They are wonderful and that includes Bud Black, a true gentleman.
Good luck tonight. Maybe the Dodgers just have to wait to come home to celebrate.http://catlovesthedodgers.mlblogs.com

The jersey totally worked when we went to the game in July! I’m glad you got it for only 6 bucks. We are on a roll! It’s too bad the season is almost over :( Let’s enjoy while it lasts.http://hyunyoung.mlblogs.com

There are rude fans every where aren’t there? And your guys beat the Dodgers again last night!!! Congrats! And did I get this right – Manny wasn’t trying on the field or at the plate? Now where have I heard that before?? ;-) Great post and a great birthday gift for you!

Kaybee,
You are so welcome! That was a beautful sign you had. Once you showed it to me, I was able to spot where you were sitting. I told my friend, see that sign there, that is Kaybee. Glad you had a nice time with your birthday tickets. sorry about the fans but know that those are in the minority. There are a lot of great Dodger fans. one of the traditions that this couple that sit to my left do is bring two big cakes on the last day of the season sying “Thank you to all the workers at Dodger Stadium.” Once we learned of his tradition, we started contributing to the cakes. I will take pictures on Sunday. The cake is to share with the workers there and with all the season ticket holders.
Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com/

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